Consumed
by Reaver17
Summary: Skyrim land of high mountains, deep caves and legendary heroes, but what happens when the Legendary Dragonborn grows bored of his surroundings and accepts a Daedra's offer of a new journey into a strange world of Grimm aspects? What could go wrong? Everything in fact, it is a search for knowledge, and as the Augur of Dunlain so eloquently put it, knowledge consumes...
1. Falling Dragon

**Consumed**

 **By Reaver17**

 **Fact 1: I am a nerd, I watch RWBY, I play video games, I own a deck of pokemon cards just for the sake of having it.**

 **Fact 2: I don't care if you think its stupid, then again if you did you probably wouldn't be reading fanfiction.**

 **Fact 3: I like to keep an open mind to things, if you have any thoughts or questions or even have a fanfic idea that you're too lazy to write yourself then say something, there are no bad ideas, just different opinions.**

 **Disclaimer: As if this isn't obvious enough I don't own RWBY or Skyrim, I'm only saying it once.**

 **P.S. from now on / means a break in paragraphs.**

 **Satisfied? Good, let's begin…..**

 **Chapter 1: Falling Dragon**

"A battle, a battle brought on Dragonwing!"

"Not far, not far, the Dragonborn comes!"

"And all will be measured, both coward and King!"

"I know, I know, the Dragonborn comes!"

The applause rang through the streets as the song ended with smiles and laughs as the city shared it's merriment with the world.

For a place called Solitude it was quite crowded, it always was, but more so than usual, today was the 30th anniversary of Alduin's defeat, made to honor the province's greatest hero, the Dragonborn.

Of course the Last Dragonborn had died gloriously in his fight against the last dragon in the world nigh on twenty years ago, well, at least that's what they told everyone.

Miles away in a castle thought to be long abandoned sat he himself, the Dragonborn, Saviour of the World, Reserve Legate of the Imperial Legion, Retired Harbinger of the Companions, Mysterious Arch-mage of Winterhold and Master of the Blades, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood and Volkihar Vampires, of course nobody knew about the last four, and not even his most loyal friends was trusted with knowledge of his Lord.

Said Dragonborn had been living quietly for two decades, as quietly as he could anyway, a few people here and there was aware of The Contract, a simple agreement, in return for his exemplary service to the Empire and Solstheim (Discreet slaughter of the Emperor notwithstanding) the Imperial Council and the Redoran House had agreed to leave him alone, all three of his outside estates and the Severin manor in Raven Rock would be guarded jealously by veteran soldiers free of charge and he would be left in peace provided he keep "his pet brigands" in the shadows, meaning no overly public interaction of his less than legal friends and only block out the sun if he absolutely had too.

So here was the hero living a quiet immortal vampiric life in his castle, unlimited power at his beck and call, and he did nothing with it, which probably explained why he was bored out his skull for the first ten years.

He was a High Elf, he was used to long periods of nothingness, or he used to be used to it at least, who knew one swordsmanship class was all it took to kick a spoiled nobleman into a life of adventure and morally questionable organisations.

Now he spent all his time reading and conversing with Serana over the finer points of necromancy and arguing with Fura about the proper technique of gutting a vampire hunter. The Soul Cairn was an amusing venture but only so many hours could be spent chopping through wrathman and bartering with ghostly merchants.

Fortunately however his Lord had other ideas for pass times, one such pass time was what the Dragonborn was currently engaged in, that he was sitting in Castle Volkihar wasn't entirely true. In fact only _some_ of him was sitting, the rest was currently in a realm of nightmares, so basically he was right at home.

The Vampire's eyes gleamed with curiosity as he absorbed the Knowledge held within his Master's library, He smiled comfortably as a pair of tentacles tugged gently at his ankles, pivoting on his heels he met his Master's eyes, his many, many eyes.

The ever familiar almost grandfatherly voice spoke in its usual lazy echoes, as always there was a mass of floating tentacles and appendages surrounding a central eye. " **I do hope you are enjoying yourself.** " The elf did not bow or salute or show any signs of subservience, the look in his eyes was all the gratification Hermaeus Mora needed as the Altmer spoke in his impossibly calm tone "I always am, I've recently been reading Draven Telvanni Aspects of the Lords, it's impressively incorrect but he sounds so confident."

The daedra chuckled " **Indeed, his speculation on Molag-Bal's habits are quite amusing, his description of Sheogorath is likely to reward him painfully though, or perhaps commendation depending on his displacement."** The servant smiled smirked at the thought but quickly removed his expression "Something tells me you didn't come here for a discussion on a dunmer's idiocy."

" **Correct, there has been a...** _ **change**_ **in the webs of Fate, I have decided to partake in it, indirectly. I trust you have been prepared for this occurrence?"** The elf nodded

" **Excellent, I will arrange for your subordinates to be informed of your absence, but first, you must know that where you are headed, I know little about. Go there, learn your surroundings, integrate yourself however you wish but be discreet, gain knowledge, do not allow knowledge to be gained, lest they perceive you as….expendable."**

Hermaeus let that statement sort of hang, there wasn't really anything to say after that, the God of Knowledge and Fate wasn't exactly the most charismatic entity around, and the Dragonborn was hardly one to talk, so he said nothing and braced himself as an inky black shell encased itself around him.

/

Glynda Goodwitch liked to think of herself as experienced, not much could surprise though it did happen on rare occasions, even then however she managed to maintain her composure, this was not one of those occasions.

The Beacon Professor enjoyed her walks in the forest, it was one of the all too few moments that there were no students insisting on destroying their surroundings or bully's trying to act tough in class. Nobody, just peace and quiet, until she was interrupted by the screaming, Glynda turned frantically trying to pinpoint source of the disturbance, she found it and stared at the heavens in disbelief.

Above was a sort of black blob hurtling towards earth "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" nobody could be seen so the screaming must have been coming from inside it meaning it's source would likely not survive.

Goodwitch began to run towards what she guessed was it's landing zone tracking the object as it fell. She arrived in a small clearing just in time to see the capsule impact kicking up a gratuitous amount of dust and a trench the width and length of a large bus.

Glynda saw shards of blackened chitinous material scattered around as well as puddles of dark green slime splattered around the crater, stepping slowly the teacher leaned over to peer into the end of the trench, and was immediately hit in the face with a glowing grey projectile, then the giggling started.

He was pretty sure it wasn't as funny as he thought it was, but hey that expression was priceless even if the Ash Shell had turned her features gray, maybe that was why, it looked like Brelyna Maryon's face after she accidentally turned him into a horse, good times.

He lay in the husk of his…..entry, the whole thing was burned out and shattered to pieces, he looked down inspecting his robes, or Miraak's robes rather, but they were definitely his now. They appeared to be undamaged so he climbed out of the trench groaning at the ache in his back and examined his victim.

"Is that? A riding crop? Right cause that's a real fierce weapon, no way bandits and thieves are going to trifle with a warrior of such obvious skill." If he had a talent then it would probably be lacing his voice with as much sarcasm as possible.

He wasn't armed, at least not with any physical weapons at the moment, even with magic he wasn't eager to stick around "You'll be fine in a minute and I'll be gone, no harm no foul. Cheers lass." He turned and started walking. Then a giant metal box erupted over the clearing with a roar Odahviing would be jealous of.

Now to the elf's credit he wasn't overly shocked, he had expected to see something inexplicable sooner rather than later, it came with experience, but he still ran away.

"WULD NAH KEST!" he shouted, his whirlwind sprint carrying him into the treeline, yelling and surprised gasps were ignored as he vanished into the forest.

/

"Are you certain you're alright Glynda?" the grey haired headmaster's face showed nothing but concern for his old friend, Glynda shooed him away with her hand "I'm fine Oz, he did nothing to harm me." Ozpin suspected her pride was harmed significantly more than her person, but it was better than the alternative.

"Professor!" Ozpin turned to see Team CFVY's bunny eared faunus Velvet Scarlatina approaching, he motioned for the huntress to continue "There's no sign of him, not even tracks, he's gone sir." Ozpin nodded and stared into the forest thoughtfully "Yes, yes he is, but…..I suspect not for long." The Headmaster called CFVY back to the airship and headed for Beacon, he had more pressing matters at the moment.

 **Well there you have it, the amalgamation of my two nerdiest pass times, I'm really enjoying it so far, don't forget to review and as always I hope you liked it, if not then no biggie. Was there something else? Ah yes! ROCK ON!**


	2. Brave New World

**Chapter 2: Brave New World**

 **Hope your enjoying it so far, let me know what you think, remember, brutal honesty.**

The Emerald forest was not peaceful, it was quiet sure but not peaceful, and the Dragonborn was currently finding out why.

The camp was easy enough to settle, the wood was everywhere and he was a walking arcane fire-starter, he had little need for a bedroll so he curled up on the ground to sleep once darkness had fallen. Of course he didn't actually sleep, the giant scorpion smashing through the trees interrupted that.

"FEIM!" the Altmer yelled and a colossal stinger buried itself in his now ghostly forehead, he rolled out danger and stood summoning his magicka while assessing his assailant, the monster was armored in a white bony shell and black resin, alien red markings adorned its massive mandibled face, the creature roared raising it's claws and swinging a bright yellow stinger.

"Come on beastie, don't be shy." the elf grinned under his mask and unleashed a flurry of chain lightning, the arachnid screeched and flailed as it's body was wreathed in electricity, charging forward the adventurer launched himself onto the monster's back, raising his hands he summoned the flames and detonated his fire storm into the creature's exoskeleton crushing it into the ground, lifeless.

Stepping off the husk he looked closer, then stumbled back with a cry of disbelief as dark smoke began rising off it, he continued to stare dumbstruck as the massive corpse evaporated into nothingness, were it not for the impact crater where it fell and broken trees from the things entry he might believe had dreamed the whole.

He doused his fire with a quick frost spell and clapped his hands twice, immediately a purple vortex appeared signaling the arrival of his butler.

The well dressed dremora regarded him with a bored expression as usual "I don't suppose _you'll_ carry some of this for awhile?" The elf ignored and the comment and held out his hands "Sword and staff, and keep this safe for me." he said tossing a hefty purse of septims to the daedra.

The dremora nodded and "Miraak's" sword and staff appeared in his hands seemingly from nowhere, the High Elf took both sheathing the hideously tentacled sword at his belt and taking the staff in his right hand, the butler bowed slightly and faded away to Oblivion.

Not a moment too soon, the second he was gone a series of howls broke the silence, the traveler smiled twirling his staff in his right hand, a cyclone of ash cloaked him at the cast of his left. Time for some fun….

/

Ozpin liked to think of himself as an experienced man, not easily surprised, but what he was seeing was so ridiculously irrational he couldn't _not_ be surprised.

He hadn't expected to see much on the forest cams but there in the flesh was Glynda's mystery man, exactly as he had described him, and all the more impressive because of it, many veteran hunter's would think twice about fighting a full sized Death Stalker alone, forget about hanging around for more afterward, that wasn't even taking into account the impossible powers he continued to display almost casually.

He leaned closer to the screen and took out his scroll, swiftly dialing a number he spoke into it while remaining completely absorbed in the strange events unfolding before him "Glynda? Prepare an airship, I need you and the professors to be somewhere fast."

/

Herma Mora's champion had had pretty good experiences with werewolves, he had _been_ one for a short period of time, Hircine wasn't so bad either, but right now he was really starting to reconsider that opinion.

Of course to be fair the things just bore a general resemblance to werewolves, but bony face plates and spikes or not it was enough to convince him to spend less time with Aela the Huntress.

A whimper of pain emitted from one of the creature's as a tentacle catapulted out of his sword and impaling it, ripping the sword out he slashed to the right, the tentacle lashing out decapitating three at once, the staff now in his left hand blasted ink all over his surroundings, more tentacles emerged from the slime strangling and tripping the creatures and stabbing into those who were big enough to merit impalement in addition to the poison coated appendages.

But even that didn't seem to slow the steadily increasing waves of monstrosities, the wolves had been joined by hordes of bearlike creatures and swarms of crow shaped devils, ungodly screams signaled many more to come. Yet somewhat disturbingly none of this fazed him, _Am I really so used to this? Probably._

He pondered this as he fought and actually started humming to the tune of Ragnar the Red, he dropped his staff and sheathed his sword, slowly waving his hands in intricate patterns frost formed on his arms and hands.

Three of the wolf creatures were apparently of smarter stock and clambered over the swiftly dissolving mound of corpse as quickly as possible, unfortunately they discounted the giant grey tornado still swirling around their prey and were flung back over the barrier into their compatriots and skewering them with the bony protrusions on their backs.

The elf started laughing….

/

Dr. Oobleck almost dropped his coffee, the masked man was the single most fascinating thing he had ever laid eyes on, and fascinating things were his business.

The stranger's arms had stopped moving through their peculiar patterns and were still, like the calm before a storm, an ice storm as it turned out.

A spinning blizzard had exploded into existence, the man's figure could be seen standing calmly in it's eye as Grimm were either grinded to pieces or flung outwards in an icy block.

Glynda tapped Oobleck on the shoulder "Let's go!" and jumped out of the low flying airship they had been standing in, a jolly Professor Port followed her laughing as he swung his axe into the nearest Grimm, the Dr.'s thermos shifted into a flame tipped staff and the history professor began shooing salvos of fireballs into the hordes.

Glynda ran straight for the stranger shouting for him to come with them, the man's personal snowstorm had cleared and he began calmly moving his arms again, a red glow gathered around him and Goodwitch stopped in surprise, then he exploded.

Red light erupted off the figure followed by three smaller green flashes, The teachers all froze as one to watch the impossible, the Grimm were turning on each other, they had disregarded their first targets and began clawing and biting themselves into shreds, meanwhile the figure picked a dark green staff off of the ground and calmly strode over to the airship with the enraptured Hunter's and Huntress followed behind almost unconsciously.

The man hesitated at the aircraft but a quick glance at the pile of violence behind him was enough to convince him to enter, the three adults followed and the group sat down inside, the others still staring at him, he chuckled slightly and lay his head against the headrest, he was silent for the rest of the ride.

 **Please let me know what you think, tell your friends about my story and I hope you enjoyed, ROCK ON!**


	3. Introductions

**Chapter 3: Introductions**

"Carmine Cerberus Cain, at your service sir." the masked man bowed low sweeping his arm extravagantly before him, he spoke with a strangely refined but rich accent, soothing yet icy as if he had spent long hours training his voice to make everyone else sound plain and simply spoken, it was one of the few things still connecting him to the courts of Summerset Isles, a talent to make those around him feel inadequate.

The school staff had escorted him straight to the elevators and rode directly to the silver haired man's study giving him little time to observe their "academy" in more than cursory glances of green courtyards and well tended halls, he was now within a large room at the peak of a tower with a massive view of the alien city beyond, the man in charge sat in a high backed grey chair decorated with cog designs behind a large desk with some transparent blue squares hovering above it, the rest of the room shared it's designs.

The headmaster adjusted his glasses and regarded Carmine with a peculiar expression that couldn't quite be identified, Glynda who stood beside him was frowning deeply. He on the other hand smiled slightly and took a sip from a cup of tea in front of him.

"A pleasure, my name is Professor Ozpin, forgive my foward nature sir but who, or rather _what_ are you? Because I have seen some very strange things in my life but _that_ takes the lead by far." Ozpin pointed his cane at the stranger's sword, it appeared to be alive, and covered with tentacles.

The guest drew his sword slowly and deliberately and turned it so the flat of the blade was facing the man and woman, a monstrous yellow eye winked at them from amid the writhing appendages near the handle causing Goodwitch to grip her riding crop just a little tighter.

The man threw his back and laughed merrily "HA HA HA HA AH HA HA, ooohhh. A little different from what you're accustomed to I reckon, but I guarantee that _Misery_ is sharper, lighter and stronger than any you'll find in this world or the next."

 _This world or the next? Interesting choice of words._ Ozpin thought as he took another sip of tea "And which world would you be referring to precisely?" The man sheathed the sword and leaned on a staff in his left hand, Ozpin was _positive_ he wasn't holding it a second ago, the mystery seemed about to be settled as the man lifted his unsettling mask off his face, Glynda's knuckles were white on her riding crop.

Ozpin stood and walked around his desk to stand a metre away from Carmine, he was definitely not human, his face was too angular, every bone was higher than they should have been and much more pronounced but he seemed to be barely older than one of the students, and his skin had a dark yellow tinge that put the headmaster in the mind of impure gold, he had short dark blonde hair that swept back from his head in spikes like he had run through a wind tunnel and he had a mustache leading down to a long goatee tied in a sort of knot, twin incisors could just be seen poking through his lips from his upper jaw.

His eyes were narrowed and piercing, like he was analyzing everything in front of him down to it's base elements, they were bright orange and seemed to glow brightly in the center, the pupils seemed either solid orange or nonexistent, but Ozpin suspected he had the best eyesight in the room.

Those eyes regarded him with an eldritch gleam "My world is very different from your's in some ways, but in others they are exactly the same, for a start, they are both worlds of monsters…." Ozpin held up a finger for him to pause and pressed a button speaking clearly "Professors Port and Oobleck please report to my office." then motioned for Carmine to continue.

 _Three and a half hours later…_

"You expect us to believe you're from another world? In which you are some kind of fabled legendary hero that slays dragons?" Glynda raised a skeptical eyebrow, Carmine was beginning to wonder if telling them the truth had been a mistake, but he was never much one for following instructions, even if they came from his _self-proclaimed_ lord.

"Correct"

"And that you are an _elven_ master of _magic_ along with swordsmanship _,_ and that you can do incredible feats of power with just your _voice?"_

"Also true."

"And you're a vampire?"

"Vampire _Lord_ , but, yeah."

"And a thief, and an assassin, and who knows what other kind of criminal?"

"That's kind of the norm around Skyrim, you'd be hard pressed to find a jarl or even a high king without some sort of sin in their lives."

"And that makes it okay?"

"I said I was a hero, I didn't say I was good at it."

Professor Port piped up at that "There is no such thing as a perfect hero Glynda, the storytellers usually just comb past the unsavory parts."

"I am inclined to agree with Professor Port, there is no reason to judge a man for the circumstances his life forced him to."

"He _chose_ to become a _bloodsucker_ who keeps _human cattle_ , he is a danger to everyone around him, he should be locked up in an Atlas prison, not walking around a school."

"Enough!" Ozpin sat up in his chair studying Carmine intently, "On the contrary, Mr. Cain has had many experiences, more numerous than some and more unique than all, I believe if the proper precautions are taken he could be of great benefit to this academy."

Glynda's mouth became a thin line of disapproval "He's dangerous."

Ozpin chuckled "Arguably so is everyone in this entire building. And I'm sure he wouldn't have survived this long if he went into a fit every time he became...hungry. Correct?" He looked inquisitively at the elf.

The Dragonborn clapped his hands "Kreo!" the gathered teachers couldn't help a sharp intake of breath as the dremora butler fazed into being, he completely ignored the other's and turned towards his summoner with a gilded red bottle "Feeding time sir?"

Carmine nodded and took the potion of blood in his right and uncorked it, downing the contents in one go, immediately a change was apparent, his skin grew slightly more yellow and his teeth vanished into his mouth, the glow in his eyes faded slightly.

His appetite sated he handed the bottle back along with his sword, Misery "A little too conspicuous I think." When Port eyed the weapon that was currently eyeing him back, Kreo vanished soundlessly.

The tension in the room seemed to leak out like a balloon rapidly deflating at this revelation, knowing he could actively keep himself under control put the professors at ease, Ozpin's eyes seemed to twinkle with anticipation. "Well I'd say that aleves any doubts sufficiently enough, now I have a question for you, how old are you exactly?"

The elf stroked his beard thoughtfully "Interesting question, assuming our years are of the same length then physically? About twenty one summers. Actual years? I'd say about forty three, now based on the fact you asked that question with the obvious intent of adjusting your next question accordingly, I know what you're about to propose and I accept."

Ozpin rose from his seat and smiled slightly "Well then I suppose congratulations are in order, feel free to get settled in and welcome to Beacon...Professor Cain."

 **The third chapter in my new favorite story, I find this is so much more enjoyable to right, I understand the majority of characters at a much higher than I do with nearly anything else, I originally didn't intend to write ANY crossovers but these two universes, they just seem to click together like matching pieces in a puzzle, I just don't run out of ideas. But as always I hope you enjoyed, feel free to leave a review and click on that follow button, and once again, ROCK ON!**


	4. Settling In

**Chapter 4: Settling In**

" **An Academy? You waste little time in your quest, I am….impressed."** Hermaeus's eyes regarded Carmine with the same sleepy gaze as always, if you didn't know him well enough you were guaranteed to mistake him as sarcastic, but Hermaeus Mora was never sarcastic.

The daedra was occupying a a bare section of wall in the Dragonborn's new classroom, or rather a regular section of wall as the room was completely empty except for the rows of desks and chairs arranged in a semicircle on multiple different levels of platform, the standard arrangement Dr. Oobleck told him before zooming around asking him questions on elven biology in a caffeine fueled bout of curiosity, Carmine had politely informed him that the less he knew the better for both of them.

Once the elf was alone the tentacled god of Fate had melded into existence through dimensional rifts that opened in the wall "I assume that you have some sort of task for me? I doubt you sent me here to research their choices of clothing."

" **Perhaps...but I'm sure I can attend the more menial aspects myself, what you seek is considerably more...primal."**

The Vampire Lord raised an eyebrow under his mask "And that would be?"

The monstrous prince's tentacles quivered with anticipation " **They actually, there are two areas of knowledge I require, the first is what they call...Dust. A powerful substance that occurs naturally in the earth here, they use it as a sort of fuel, both for mundane and mysterious affects, not magic persee but close."**

Carmine began to pace, his staff gripped tightly in his right hand "Don't tell me, the other one is the Grimm."

Mora's eyes all seemed to gleam greedily " **This world has no gods, but monsters are plentiful, and where there is a path littered with monsters…"**

"There's a bigger monster at the end." the Altmer finished "You want me to find out where they're coming from." Mora chuckled in amusement at the adventurer's perceptiveness " **Ah, now that is why** _ **you**_ **are my champion, my seeker. You comprehend my reasoning better than most have. Dust is an older art, those with any knowledge guard their secrets jealously, but Grimm, you will be the first to understand them. But I suppose you have progressed rather well, I have learned much since we last spoke, allow me to gift you with a few of Remnant's** _ **secrets.**_ "

At that one of the groupings of tendrils lashed out entangling Carmine and bathing him in a sickly green glow. The Dragonborn arched his back as a flurry of images and words flew through his mind, he let out a gasp as he suddenly understood the scope of the world around him.

 _Four beacons of light holding back the darkness, screams and roars echoing from the past and continuing in the present, brave men and woman holding back the dark tide, Aura's and Semblances tearing Grimm, Humans and Faunus asunder, angry shouts ring through quiet streets, figures in white masks march over corpses. The Kingdoms...Vale the light that gives all hope, Atlas the proud that holds fast in the cold, Mystral the colored of both beauty and ugliness, Vacuo the stubborn that fights to it's last._

 _Dust… fueling both weapons of war and tools of prosperity, guns fire, airships roar, thunder crackles, but heaters give warmth, medicine is potent and crops grow plentiful. Found in all corners yet scarce understood, always changing and shifting, dangerous and volatile, yet it is the key to salvation._

 _Grimm are deadly…..hate, anger, despair, sadness, these are what attract the Grimm, but nobody knows anything more, and nobody want's to either._

"Professor Cain?" said Professor woke abruptly, he had been leaning on his staff and staring at the lights on the ceiling, at least that was what it had looked like to his visitor.

Carmine turned and observed his visitor, he was immediately thankful for the visions as a few minutes earlier the pair of brown bunny ears protruding from the speaker's head through their hair would have been cause for alarm.

"Ah yes, apologies I was just...who are you?" the girl was obviously a student, she wore the standard uniform with the red skirt and white shirt and she wore a light brown colored jacket over it, she had long brown hair that went down just below her waist and had big brown eyes that looked at him shyly.

She spoke quietly in a soft soothing voice "Um, I was told to come tell you that we were supposed to help you settle in, uh, the rest of my team are just finishing up some homework so I thought I would come early and help out but, well do you need help with anything?"

Carmine looked at the pile of boxes and trunks and assorted materials in the back of the room, _Thank gods Kreo finished bringing those before she got here, otherwise I'd have some serious explaining to do._ "As a matter of fact you can help me setup my class materials Ms….?"

"Velvet." was the response "Velvet Scarlatina." the new professor nodded "Well Ms. Scarlatina I suppose we should get started, don't strain yourself now, wouldn't want your teammates to miss out on all the fun eh?" and with that the two began to combat the mound of materials.

They had barely gotten past moving a heavy oak wood desk to the center of the room when the rest of Velvet's team showed up, the leader was an attractive and fashionably (He assumed) dressed young woman in a strange looking hat (A beret she called it), a scarf and necklace as well as a brown shirt, a heavy belt with crosshairs and bullet designs and some sort of corset type thing that he didn't understand over her midsection, she wore dark glasses and black pants and "Heels" and had fair skin and her hair was dark brown and mostly with a lighter coloured lock of it coming down the right side of her face, she introduced herself as Coco Adel.

With her was a dark skinned, copper haired boy in black pants and a sleeveless orange shirt who said nothing more than his name "Fox Alistair." his eyes were pure white. The last member of the team was a giant of a boy, Yatsuhashi Daichi who wore brown pants, a black sleeveless shirt, a green robe like garb fastened at the waist with a leather belt and a huge layered plate of dark green armor on his left shoulder.

Basically they were the oddest group of people Carmine had ever seen in his life, he said nothing of it however and proceeded to instruct and participate in arranging furniture and miscellaneous belongings in the classroom and and sent Yatsuhashi with a chest of items to his quarters for him to sort out later.

The result of their efforts was truly something to see, if only the author wasn't a jerk and didn't decide to leave the description to the next chapter. Sucks to be you huh?

/

"How is our new teacher adjusting to things?" Ozpin took a sip of his tea before turning on his cameras and answering Glynda's question "He appears to be acclimating to his surroundings quite well, or I should think so at least, the camera did black out at one point. But the rest of the footage is proving him to be well enough."

Glynda frowned "I still think this was a mistake Oz, he never did tell us _why_ he was here or even how he got here to begin with."

The headmaster looked at his friend "You and I both know how many mistakes I've made, I'm quite certain this isn't one of them." Professor Goodwitch's frown just deepened "We don't even know what he's teaching yet, but you gave him his own classroom already?"

Ozpin clasped his hands together and propped his chin onto them "I'm not a superstitious man Glynda, you know that, but there is some _way_ about him and when he arrived here, well it sounds absurd I know but….I can't help but think it might be fate…."

 **I love writing this, I hope you love reading it! Please review, follow etc. and ROCK ON!**


	5. Good Morning Remnant

**Chapter 5: Good Morning Remnant**

"Wakey wakey team! Come on! Everyone up today's the day!" The energetic little girl bounced up and down excitedly, everyone else groaned.

"Friday….can't...get out..of bed." Yang groaned out still half asleep, Weiss sat up on her bunk with her hair pressed against the side of her head, Blake just fell out of bed.

"GUYS!" Ruby yelled at the top of her lungs, everyone shook themselves awake "OW! We're up, we're going! Jeez Ruby what's so important that you have to wake us up thirty minutes early?" Yang had sat up so fast she bumped her head on the top bunk and was rubbing her throbbing forehead.

Ruby grabbed her arm and dragged her out of bed "We have our new class today remember? Professor Ozpin said to get an early morning!" Weiss threw a pillow that connected with the buzzing brunette's head knocking her somewhat comically to the ground "Ruby! He said there's _no need_ for an early morning because it's the latest class of the day! It's getting _dark_ by the time it starts!"

Ruby stood grinning sheepishly as her team glared at her for the mistake and held the pillow up to hide her face "Oh, sorry…...don't hurt me" And was buried by the flurry of pillows thrown in her direction.

/

"You want me to _what?!"_ Glynda flinched, perhaps when she called him to her office she could have worded her suggestion a little more clearly than _eventually we need to get you out of those clothes_. She endeavoured to aleve his confusion "No no nothing like that! What I mean to say is you need to change into something a little less _formal_ and for along the lines of what a Hunter would actually _wear_."

The foul mooded vampire stood in front of Goodwitch's desk, her office was plain and orderly, a darkwood desk dominated the room with ornate designs of Grimm and Hunters battling, with a small glass circle projecting a screen out of the center. The rest of the room was furnished with bookcases holding thick volumes and textbooks, a few display cabinets holding numerous small weapons and trophies as well as a row of plaques listing some achievements or other.

Carmine had arrived in some sort of low necked blue tunic with white accents and an orange collared undershirt with light blue sleeves and a pair of black boots, he scowled and pointed out a window at the rising sun "You dragged me into your office for _this?_ I am _aware_ what I look like, I was planning to wear some of my usual gear to my class and pass it off as my "Combat Gear" because we were going to be doing something interactive, I will get new clothes _tomorrow_ thank you very much, now I'd like to go back to sleep now."

He turned towards the door and froze, he swiveled around his heels with a sheepish grin "Um, sorry...now that I think about it, I may need help with that later, I um...I'm not actually familiar with Remnant's _fashion."_

Glynda waved him out with a frown which he took to mean _figure it out yourself._ Exiting quickly he started to head in the direction of his quarters and stopped, _Oh well I'm up anyway, might as well_ he thought and swerved left down a hallway towards his class, he made his way down the white halls staring at the floor while glancing up occasionally to make sure hadn't missed his stop.

Finding the right door he walked in and locked it behind him, he had to hand it to CFVY, they did a great job decorating. The entire room had weapon plaques adorning the walls with warhammers and crossed swords with shields, Bows were lined up on racks with quivers full of arrows, display cases held books, tomes and scrolls of every size and shape, arranged in a line at the back wall of the room just behind his heavy oaken desk was series of complete armor suits held together by metal frames, from left to right they were as follows: Hide, Fur, Leather, Elven, Chitin, Scaled, Glass, Ancient falmer and lastly Stalhrim light.

The professor walked behind his desk and sat down in a comfy black "swivel" chair as they called, leaning over his desk he held out his left arm above the desk, closing his eyes he let his mind go blank, then he thought of his destination, of dark hallways and green lights, of black ink and writhing tendrils, of ancient books as far as he could see, he thought of Apocrypha.

He opened his eyes and saw his method of travel, blackish green slime dripped from his sleeve like an oil stained rag, a small pool formed on the desk and the familiar tentacles wriggled out of nothingness, twisting and covering each other until a solid rectangle of the stuff had taken shape in front of him, tapping the shape lightly he watched as the appendages evaporated into smoke leaving behind his prize, a Black Book.

The elf's eyes glinted as he opened the volume revealing a flurry of daedric letters flying across the pages, a glowing green line of text reached off the page and solidified, then he saw nothing as his vision blurred.

When his sight cleared he stood among walls of books, he turned suddenly at a growl, his hands clenched nervously as he saw a Seeker tower over him, the beast extended a hand towards and he took a deep breath in, and then burst out laughing. The nightmarish creature was holding out a red covered book with the words _Hunter's apparel: A catalog of practical Remnant fashion,_ Carmine accepted the book with a nod and turned to the first page still smiling.

/

 _Hours later..._

"AAAAHHHH, URK!" _BANG!_ Ren impacted hard against the circular arena wall, for a split second he stuck before falling to the floor groaning, Professor Goodwitch didn't even have to look at the board "And the winner is Yang Xiao Long. That will be the last match for today, head to your last class and keep practicing, you can _never_ be too prepared, dismissed."

Yang jogged over to her opponent grinning and held out her hand "Whoops! I guess I sort of _ren_ away with that last hit, sorry!" Ren muttered something about being verbally kicked while he was down and took her hand to be pulled to his feet. "Good fight, remind me not to make you angry." Yang laughed then turned at the sound of her little sister's voice.

"Hey! Yang! Ren! That was _awesome_! It was _so close._ " the rest of both RWBY and JNPR walked over smiling, all but Nora who of course ran over screaming "REEEEEEEENNNNN!" and tackled the exhausted huntsman.

Ruby threw her hands up in the air and bounced excitedly as RWBY began heading toward the exit leaving JNPR to tend to Ren's bruised "Now finally we can go to our new class, oooohhh I wonder what the professor is going to be like! Just think, we get to be the first class with an entirely new subject that _nobody_ but us will have learned before!"

Weiss rolled her eyes but hints of smile could be seen on her face "Ruby do you even know what the class _is?_ " the team shared a laugh at the blank look on their leader's face.

Blake frowned as they walked down the hall "Wait a minute, what _is_ the class? I don't remember any mention of the subject, just that it was a new class and it was mandatory." Weiss frowned "Hey, Blake's right, what _are_ we doing in that class?"

The team frowned collectively at the mystery, Yang shrugged "Well there's one way to find out, we're here." she said pointing at door to their right, a small crowd of students had formed in the hall, JNPR was among them "Hey girls! What took you so long?" Ruby smiled sheepishly "I guess we got hung up talking, but what's going on? Why is the door closed?"

Weiss sighed "Of course our new professor is too _busy_ to open the door." the heiress frowned deeply and pushed through the students, she banged on the classroom door, as soon as her hand made contact the door was ripped open and she squealed in surprise and fell on her butt.

All the student's froze as a golden face of tentacles confronted them, a chuckle emitted from the ghastly maw "Well don't just stand there looking confused, I have a lecture to give." the face which was now clearly a mask cocked to the side, Carmine chuckled again as he turned and the class filed in behind him.

 **Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it and as always, ROCK ON!**


	6. Class is now in session

**Chapter 6: Class….is now in session**

 **Hope you like it so far, if not well then I don't know why you're still reading.**

"Everyone have seat we are about to begin, open your notebooks to take down whatever's important, my name is Professor Cain and I'm going to need a student to help me with the first portion of the class, any volunteers?" a few hands shot up around the classroom, Carmine scanned the rows of students looking for the right candidate, a green haired girl in the back of the classroom caught his eye.

"You there Miss….?" The girl smirked, confidence, that was interesting. "Sustrai, Emerald Sustrai." her smirk vanished when the teacher snorted "Hmmm, well Miss Sustrai would you be so kind as to come and stand next to me?"

The girl frowned slightly but got out of her seat and headed down, her clothes were unusually generous when it came to the amount of skin she had showing, apparently they didn't have a dress code at Beacon.

She came to a stop in front of him and looked up at him trying to peer through the eye holes of the mask; _Interesting choice of clothing, who wears_ robes _anywhere but a fantasy fair?_ ; she thought curious about the new man in the building.

Carmine grinned underneath the mask, his eyes gleamed "Now hit me." Emerald's eyes widened in shock "Um, what?" the elf suddenly pushed the surprised teen off her feet and onto the floor, she landed with an _Oof!_ "You heard what I said, _hit me!"_ the girl jumped to her and swung at him, he caught her fist and pushed her again "Again.".

Emerald growled and kicked out at him, he knocked her foot aside with his knee "Enough. Can anyone tell me what Miss Sustrai did wrong?" he scanned the room, not a single hand was raised "Nobody? Disappointing, Emerald you can head back to your seat. The _answer_ is that she let me catch her off guard, her moves were telegraphed, a common mistake but still unacceptable, observe."

He produced a remote from his robes and clicked on a previously unnoticed projector suspended from the ceiling, an image of an armored soldier with a rifle appeared on the back wall "This man is a Mistral patrol officer, right now he's in a forest infested with Grimm. Can anyone tell me what he is thinking in this exact moment, no? You!" Carmine pointed a blonde girl who was staring intently at the image, she looked at him surprised "What is the officer doing?" she looked back to the image "He's down on one knee and he's aiming his gun."

The professor nodded "And what does that tell you?" the student shrugged "Well I'd say he's about to shoot at a Grimm."

"Correct!" he pressed another button and the image zoomed out to show a beowolf in the the man's line of fire, he pressed an arrow key and the image shifted to depict the same soldier on his feet still aiming but this time at multiple beowolves. "How about now? You boy!"

A black haired boy with a green coat with a pink streak through his hair studied the image "Same thing, he's still about to shoot." the masked teacher shook his head "Wrong, his head is turned to look behind him, his right foot is slightly drawn inwards, his grip is loose on his weapon and it's pointing at a slight downward angle, if you look at his mouth you can see him biting his lip. This soldier shows all the signs that he is about to run away, case in point."

Carmine clicked his remote and a video played, the soldier turned swiftly stowing his rifle on his back and scrambling up a tree while the Grimm clawed at him from the ground. A student's hand shot up in the second row, Carmine pointed at the small black haired girl in a red hood "Um, Professor Cain? What exactly is this class about?"

The Dragonborn chuckled to himself "This world is full of Grimm of every shape and size, few of them are smart and many are easy to deal with, people on the other hand are something else entirely, their emotional, they have opinions, which means every single one reacts differently to different situations. I'm going to teach how to read what they're going to do before they do it. When they break and when they stand, how they feel, what they're afraid of. I'll teach you to use it to your advantage, to make sure the corrupt clean up their act, to make bandits and thieves have nightmares about you, to teach the world that hurting the good guys is their worst ever decision."

The class was silent as they stared at their professor with newfound curiosity, and open mouths. Carmine was silent for a few seconds then took off his mask, the assembled teenagers gasped and there were several mutterings of "Faunus". "In short class, Remnant is a black wave of monsters, I'm going to teach you how to hold back the tide, and if that doesn't work we can always poison the water."

/

"He has a taste for the theatrical I'll give him that, but I still think it was insane letting him anywhere near this school, I mean he called _himself_ a quote 'Gods damned _monster_ '."

Ozpin's face was blank as he stared into the screen "I know he did Glynda, which is why I let him come here, when he told us those stories he didn't spare us the gory details, in fact if I recall he made an effort to convince us he can't be trusted."

 _Flashback…._

" _...then I stabbed the emperor, he didn't struggle, didn't even voice an objection, he just_ looked _at me and said 'Live long'." Carmine shrugged at his own description "I never knew why but, when I was told vampirism was immortality I just….thought it of it as keeping a promise."_

 _Ozpin raised an eyebrow "You made a promise to the man you killed?" The vampire shook his head "No, I made a promise to myself, to remember…..all of it."_

 _The silver haired headmaster frowned deeply "You mean to say you remember everyone you killed?" another shake of the head "I remember that I have killed, I remember that some of them didn't deserve it, I remember how I felt about being better than everyone else, I remember why I warned everyone to stay away, I remember an old dragon at the top of the world, I remember what he said to me_ " _ **What is better? To be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?**_ " _And I remember screaming because I knew no matter what I did, I would always be the bad guy, even if nobody knew that I was."_

" _You think of yourself as evil?"_

" _I think of myself as what evil has nightmares about…."_

 _Flashback ends…_

"No one goes through that much effort to separate themselves and then accepts a teaching position unless they were silently calling for help." Goodwitch frowned "You really think you can trust him?"

Ozpin shook his head still studying the screen "I don't trust him, that needs to come from the students before it ever comes from me, and I look forward to the day it does."

/

"Again." Ruby gritted her teeth still panting, Yang smile tiredly, neither felt comfortable about fighting each other in a classroom, even less so without either of their weapons, Ruby zoomed forward leaving petals in her wake, Yang braced herself for a hit from the front but Ruby circled around her and tackled her from behind, Yang fell down with her sister on top of her.

"Again." that had been all the professor had said for the last half an hour, he told different students to fight till one of them fell down, then he told them to do it again, and again, and again without any explanation as to why it was related to the class.

The two sisters faced each other again at opposite sides of the room, this time Yang charged forward and and slid on the floor knocking out an exhausted Ruby's legs before she was ready. Professor Cain just shook his head "That will be all for today, get some rest and have fun over the weekend, our next class will be held in the arena, leave your weapons in your lockers. Dismissed."

Ruby and Yang walked tiredly together over to the other half of the team who stood near the doorway, Weiss was scowling deeply "I don't understand that man, one minute he's asking us to play a guessing game and then he's telling students to beat each other to exhaustion, he _must_ be insane."

"I most certainly am insane, don't insult me by thinking otherwise." the man's voice caused all of them to jump as the professor strode towards them with a green staff in his hand, his mask once more on his face "And if I wasn't insane I'd have been dead a very long time ago, after all, madness is just an advanced form of creativity." And with that ominous advice their professor walked out of the classroom leaving them with puzzled expressions and even more puzzled minds.

 **I just want to take a second and thank each and everyone of you for the enormous support, seriously guys I'm grateful, thats kind of big for me. But anyways I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it and as always, ROCK ON!**


	7. Mad Gambling

**Chapter 7: Mad Gambling**

 **One thing, thank you all SO much for all the views, I didn't actually start writing in the mind of "would everyone else like to read this?" I just thought "I'd like to read this." the response has been a little overwhelming. Okay more than a little so just for the record; THANK YOU SO MUCH I LOVE YOU ALL!...*Ahem* enough mushiness, story time.**

"I hate shopping for clothes." The elf scowled as he viewed his surrounding, rows upon rows of leggings, jeans, jackets, parkas, scarves, boots and a million and one other variations of the same damn clothing dominated everything around him.

He'd picked up a few things in his studies into the Remnant fashion industry, most of it was surprisingly agreeable, practical too if a bit strange, of course that still didn't improve his mood. Very view designers made clothes with his sort of height in mind in Skyrim, that number wasn't exactly increased in a world without the existence of elves.

He had found exactly _one_ set of clothing in his size that looked normal, a pair of blue jeans with a black dress shirt, a black trench coat that buttoned a little to the left of it's center that stopped just below his knees and a black flat cap.

Carmine looked at the hangers in his left hand that held the clothes with an expression of contempt; _it took me three hours to find just this? Damn this, I'll just enchant it to keep clean, it's not as though anyone around here seems to have variety in what they wear, and it's not like I was gonna use those soul gems any…..shit, what am I gonna do when I run out of those to recharge_ Misery _and my staff? I can't exactly just venture out hoping for somebody on the brink of death, killing people isn't so common here._

He sighed, _One thing at a time,_ and walked over to pay for the clothing, the cashier was some pale little snobby girl with blonde hair and a multitude of facial piercings, Carmine resisted the urge to gag.

She gave him the same look she had when he walked in, a raised eyebrow that seemed to say _what kind of robed freak thinks he can afford my clothing?,_ he chuckled, that was the exact same look Taarie had given him the first time he walked into Radiant Raiment. With that thought he slapped a huge wad of Lien on the counter and walked away as the cashier gawked at the cash, it didn't matter, it's not like it was his money, neither was the other three wallets worth of the stuff in various hidden pockets in his robes.

He exited the store and emerged in a courtyard surrounded by more shops, he started walking debating what to do next; _I could visit a dust shop….no, no I wouldn't know where to begin with it, Mora is probably slavering over some obscure way of binding book covers or something so no help there, maybe I should just see what I can do with it? Oh, yeah cause that worked SO well with fire salts, I don't need my vampiric ass set on fire again thank you very much. I need a tutor of some sort, but who would share anything with me?_

He was so absorbed in his thoughts he collided right into a passerby who cried out in protest "Hey! Watch where you're going you absent brained….Professor?" he looked down in surprise to see a familiar green haired girl looking at him with an open mouth, her eyes were a little too wide and he found out why when he saw what was in her right hand.

He crossed his arms, eyes glinting viciously "You find yourself some spare change there Miss Sustrai?" Her eyes widened even more and she started to sweat, this was her worst case scenario, she had been caught by someone who knew her.

The professor actually chuckled causing an irrationally sheepish grin to invade her face and she blushed, this reaction was confusing her beyond belief.

Carmine had to restrain himself from laughing out loud and drawing attention to them "Walk with me." Emerald nodded and dropped the wallet on the ground to walk alongside the teacher's left. He spoke to her just loud enough for her understand him "Are you here with someone?" a nod was her only response "Take me to them." another nod and she veered off towards a small cafe with Carmine close behind her.

Emerald tried to keep herself calm; _I swear if this guy does one more thing out of the ordinary my brain is going to explode._ The young thief pushed aside her thoughts and just focused on getting to the others. The cafe was bustling with people talking and laughing, colorful chairs and tables were arranged outside so customers could sit in the sun, in the center of the activity sat two black haired girls drinking coffee with a bored looking boy with grey hair on the other side of their table.

She walked over and sat down without a word, Mercury turned to her and raised an eyebrow "What's with you? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"You're not far off there boy." Professor Cain seemed to appear from out of nowhere causing all of them except Emerald to jump in surprise, Carmine pulled up an empty chair and sat between Mercury and Cinder. He sat forward and clasped his hands "So, are there any other thieves among us or is it just the two." Cinder breathed in sharply, Neo's eyes widened, Mercury spluttered and Emerald sunk nervously into her chair.

Carmine's eyes were positively twinkling through his mask as he observed the group carefully "No? Well that's disappointing, here I was thinking I finally found even a remotely interesting group." everyone at the table dropped their jaws and looked nervously at the surrounding crowds who were thankfully oblivious to the team's current nightmare.

The Dragonborn pulled out his ill gotten Lien and placed it on the counter "Care for a bet anyone?" the team gasped collectively, Cinder looked around panicking, someone _had_ to have noticed that, yet amazingly not a single glance was even casually thrown in their direction, she frowned, a faint shimmer seemed to be surrounding them but it wasn't nearly hot enough for that to happen….oh.

She shifted uncomfortably as she realised it, and studied the others, the disguised Neo seem to have come to the same conclusion as her eyes had turned pink from her apparent falter in focus and were fixed on the source of the anomaly. Carmine actually let out a _giggle_ as the youths slowly pinpointed him as the source of their cover, this was getting interesting.

"Well well, it seems you _do_ have some perception after all. Let's see, Thief." He pointed at Emerald "Killer." to Mercury "Actor." Neo "and Ringleader." he finished pointing at Cinder then raised his finger "No not Ringleader...Lieutenant, that's it." He cocked his head as Cinder's eye twitched, he'd stepped on a sore spot.

He fanned the Lien out on the table "I bet you Cinder that I can steal more than Emerald in one minute, if she wins you've earned my silence and I will not pry further, if I win then you will help me with a little project I'm working on, to make it interesting both of us will only choose one person to steal from and then we will come back here and compare." then he waited patiently while the group recovered from the strangeness of their situation.

Emeralds brain was screaming in her head; _THIS MAN IS INSANE! GET AWAY FROM HIM NOW! RUN AWAY!_ "Deal!" She blurted out sitting up in her seat drawing looks of amazement from the others and a warning glare from Cinder, "We'll take the bet!" The man shifted his gaze to Cinder whose face had deeply thoughtful expression, she scowled seeming to decide something and she nodded slowly.

Carmine stood up grabbing his bag of clothing and disappeared into the crowd almost instantaneously, Emerald blinked then stood and strode quickly into the throng scanning the people around her, there was a few promising targets, a red haired woman spoke into a scroll with an exasperated expression, she carried a few bags from a high price dust shop. A burly looking teen boy was showing off an uber expensive wrist watch to a group of girls and- there! An older man with a grumpy face and a shaved head held up his scroll in front of him, he wore a luxury suit that was probably worth more than any one of the surrounding shops.

Emerald let out a relieved breath and made a beeline for her mark, she walked with her head down and slouched her shoulders hands in her pockets, just as she was about to pass him she bumped into him and quickly snatched a fat wallet with a mumbled "Sorry." the man shook his head in annoyance and kept walking oblivious to his recently emptied pocket.

Emerald hurried back to the cafe and sat down putting her head in her hand and groaned slightly, Carmine appeared shortly afterward and sat down beside her putting his hat on the table "I win." he said and tossed a fat wallet on the table about the same size as Emerald's. Emerald smiled "I don't think so-" and gasped as her hands reached into an empty pocket, the others breathed in sharply and the Professor chuckled "I said we could only steal from one person, I never said that person couldn't be each other, have a nice weekend." He put his hat back on and stood strolling away whistling, the group stared at the Lien in horror, all but Mercury who pointed at the man "Um...guys?" They all turned towards him causing him to gulp "You were gone for like thirty seconds, when did he change?"

The group gawked at the seemingly magical transformation, Carmine chuckled again and started buttoning his trench coat.

 **There you go guys! Hope you enjoyed reading and as always ROCK ON!**


	8. Experiments

**Chapter 8: Experiments**

 **Hey guys! It's me again! Welcome back to the Professor's misadventures in the wonderfully violent world of Remnant! A place where dreams come true and even nunchucks are also guns, *sigh* if they ever create an interdimensional travel system in real life I think I know where I'm going to settle down. But enough about me! Lets watch Carmine do some SCIENCE!**

"Just a _little more."_ Carmine was hunched over his alchemy table carefully measuring out a vial of mysterious dark red liquid into a crystal beaker, he stopped at the proper measurement and grabbed a grey bottle on the side of the table, he poured the entirety of the bottle into the beaker and sloshed it around, the liquid almost immediately turned thicker and more viscous like a gooey syrup, Carmine was testing blood.

His eyes lit up and he scribbled furiously in a journal bound with a tough leather cover; _Remnant citizen's blood shows increased resistance to both deadly and paralytic poisons of high strength comparable to that of the average bosmer or redguard, magicka and stamina draining toxins require live subject to test, will procure willing specimen._

He grabbed a smaller red bottle and dumped it's contents into the the mix, the blood immediately thinned to it's original state, the elf clapped his hands excitedly; _Beneficial potions of any kind seem if it anything more effective than they should be, higher healing rates and stronger arcane bonding to the blood, blood even seems viable for transfusion with extended time out of the body and without cooling, perhaps a manifestation of local energy known as 'Aura'? Or a singular anomaly with anonymous donor's Semblance? Will need to employ 'friends' for further testing._

 _Thock! Thock! Thock!_ Carmine left his notes and turned towards the noise frowning, he had a visitor, his _first_ visitor since he had arrived, he strode towards the door and opened it peering into the hallway, he raised an eyebrow as he saw his visitor, outside his classroom stood the big man himself "Ozpin, this is a surprise."

Ozpin smiled "And why would it be? It is a headmaster's duty to make sure his teachers are well." it was his turn to raise an eyebrow "If I may, what _is_ that smell?" the vampire rubbed his hands together excitedly "Oh it's really quite fascinating, come I'll show you." the headmaster paced in after the elf with a bemused expression; _he does not strike me as the eccentric type._

Carmine hurried over to the alchemy table and picked up the beaker and one of the gilded bottles he fed from and held up both "This is the blood of the race of man called Imperials, and _this_ is the blood I ordered from one of your 'blood banks', I've tested several different toxins of my own recipe, now anyone of these poisons could have effectively killed any normal man with ease, but _Remnant_ blood seems resistant to toxins of any shape form or origin, not as much as a vampire but enough to keep you alive at a table full of angry relatives."

The grey haired headmaster frowned a little "Have you... _had_ that experience?" the vampire nodded vigorously "Numerous uncles and aunts many of whom hate each other, my family is unconventional even by Skyrim standards, don't worry nobody dies, they don't really _do_ that kind of thing."

Ozpin looked as if he was going to pry further but thought it was best not too, Carmine continued his impromptu lecture "But it's amazing, the very _bondings_ of Remnant's people seems designed to bolster the good and dilute the bad, you have _evolved_ to be natural born _heroes._ I just need to study my other concoctions effects on...say you wouldn't be open to drinking a non-lethal toxin would you?"

The headmaster took a few steps back with a nervous expression "Um, perhaps another time I need to um, I have papers, yes! PAPERS! I HAVE PAPERS TO FILL OUT! HAVE A GOOD DAY!" his figure blurred and loud _SWOOSH_ signaled his hurried exit of the classroom.

Carmine stared at the spot the headmaster had been for few moments, he chuckled " _Smooth_ Ozpin, _real smooth."_

" **Quite the didact you've turned out to be, I should have visited your wizard college more often."** Carmine smiled and turned to the familiar mass of tendrils "Well, what can I say? Like father like son." his father chuckled " **Indeed."**

 **/**

"Plllllllllleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaassssssseeeeee, guys?" Weiss huffed "You have done nothing all day but stuff yourself full of junk food, you do not need ice cream." Ruby clung to her exasperated partner's waist with a puppy eyes face "But I want strawberry flavour! The Vytal festival won't be around forever and I want it to be AWESOME while it's here, and that means strawberry ice cream!"

Weiss huffed again "I'm not paying for it." Ruby let go and threw her arms in the air "Yyyyaaaaaannnnngggg!" the blonde giggled smiling at her sister's whining "Don't worry Ruby, I could go for some ice cream, come on everyone I'm buying." Ruby squealed and hugged her sister, Blake smiled slightly at her team.

RWBY walked through the festival crowds with smiles on their faces, they'd never seen Vale so upbeat and noisy, rows of stands were set up in the streets, shops opened up with special prices and products, and men and women from other kingdoms laughed and cheered at the colorful sights and sounds. The team of huntresses pushed through the sea of people towards a row of shops looking for one particular building "There it is! Vales Creamery!" Ruby pointed excitedly bouncing up and down, to a big pink building with the picture of an ice cream cone painted on a sign beside a list of flavours.

"I don't see what the big deal is it's just ice cream." Blake said eyeing the building curiously, Yang put her arm around her partner's shoulders and used her left to point at the sign "Come on kitty cat, they've got _sardine delight~."_ She said in a sing-song voice, the faunus's bow twitched and her eyes brightened just slightly "Fiiiisssshhhh...er, I mean….I suppose that wouldn't be so bad."

The team laughed and walked into the shop, as soon as they all entered a familiar face greeted them carrying a four scoops ice cream cone "Hello girls! And _hello Weis-_ WOAH!" _SPLAT!_ Jaune tripped over a customer's food and flung his ice cream, right on Weiss's head, he looked up nervously from his spot on floor to see a red faced and furious heiress glaring at him, Yang laughed "Wow, now that's what you call _Weiss-Cream_! Eh? Eh?" everyone but Yang groaned.

 **HA HA! SON OF THE DAEDRIC PRINCE! DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING DID YA?! Hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. If you didn't laugh at Yang's pun you have no sense of humor but I won't hold that against you, my punniness is still developing. ROCK ON!**


	9. No room for the weak

**Chapter 9: No room for the weak**

 **Hello….this chapter is going to kick off with something a little…...harsh.**

"Again!" Blake gritted her teeth at her smiling partner and they both charged forward weaponless, Blake launched herself upwards into a flying kick and Yang followed with an upward punch with her fist connecting with the faunus's foot, the impact caused them both to flinch in pain and the pair of them fell to the arena floor in a heap.

The sound of clapping drew the tired pair's gaze to their teacher who turned to the audience with his arms spread wide "Now _that's_ what we're here to see! The moment you and your teammates cannot beat each other in a fight is the moment they have become a _team._ You need to know what your partners are going to do before they do it, you need to form plans without holding a meeting, you need to execute complicated stratagems without saying a word, you need to truly _know_ one another, when you figure out how to read one friend, you can learn to predict the actions of a hundred enemies be it human, beast or Grimm."

Carmine adjusted his trench coat frowning slightly; _Too light, I'll have to slip some moonstone plating in between the seams._ "Yang, Blake, both of you please take a seat, you have all made astoundingly rapid progress….well, most of you." He raised an eyebrow at the bruised and battered Arc boy being tended to by his team "But as I have said before this class is at it's core a way to defend yourself against those who would _actually_ attack you, and play havoc with their minds, so now we move on to the next portion of the lesson, so who want's to fight with me?!"

The room went quiet, nobody raised their hands, not a single one, the student's eyes peered at one another waiting to see who would be the first to volunteer. Carmine crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side "Nobody? Not a single soul? I thought you people were supposed to be brave, it appears I have been wasting my time. I am not amused with people who waste my time. So I shall ask again, who. Wants. To. Fight. Me?"

Scowls and raised eyebrows began to slide onto the assembled student's faces, was he really calling them cowards? What right did he have to do that? Every right in fact, though none of them knew it, slowly hands began to rise around the room.

Cinder frowned as she surveyed the scene, he was good, he was _really good._ He'd known exactly what to say, precisely what buttons to press to spur the teens into acting, he was at that very moment giving a perfect demonstration of what he was trying to teach them and they hadn't even noticed "This man could be a very dangerous enemy." she muttered; _or perhaps an ally?_ Her brain responded; _easier said than done._

She elbowed the gray haired boy sitting beside her "Mercury, why don't you give our new adversary a little, _test run."_ the kickboxer turned to her wide eyed "You can't be serious?" Cinder frowned at him and he bowed his head "Erm, right, I volunteer!" he stood up with his hand raised drawing stares and smirks from everybody in the room, Carmine clapped "Excellent Mercury! Prepare for combat! And keep those boot guns off!"

Mercury scowled and took up position at one end of the training room in his fight stance while the professor just stood still with his hands in his coat pockets, Mercury took a step forward then hesitated, wasn't the whole point of this teacher's lessons supposed to prove he knew exactly how to get to them? Mercury stopped and studied Cain, the man regarded him with an unnervingly blank expression, his figure was stone, completely unmoving, still. His hands sat in his trench coat pockets and his shoulders were loose and relaxed, his feet just slightly apart, watching…..waiting.

Mercury could _feel_ the concentration in that blank stare, just waiting, _begging_ him to attack first, so he didn't, he stood still and stared right back. The professor smiled, he began to stride casually towards him, the boy tensed as he drew near; _just a little closer…..NOW!_ Mercury flipped up on his hands bringing his feet swinging downward towards his opponent, and right into the floor, he looked around shocked to see Carmine standing unharmed beside him "How?" _Thwack!_ Mercury crumpled to the floor groaning as the teacher's fist connected with his jaw.

Carmine sighed and picked up the dazed teen by the collar and shook him slightly "Walk it off." he said and gave him a little push making him move unsteadily towards the door "Mr. Black had the right idea, but not the right technique, if there is ever a foe you are unsure of do not attack full out, and do not take your eyes off them with an overly sophisticated fighting move used to catch them off guard because more than likely you will be the one off guard. Check your scrolls, you will find a list of fighting techniques I have personally selected which will allow you to gauge your opponent's skills in order to make informed tactical decisions about your course of action and keep you in the fight with me for more than five seconds, Cinder would you and your team please meet me in my classroom, Mr. Arc I need to speak to you here, class dismissed."

The elf rolled his shoulders back and smirked at the worried look Cinder and her remaining teammates; _I love my work._ Then he frowned at the boy walking nervously up to him "You uh, you wanted to see me? Sir?" the professor nodded curtly "Yes Juane, it has come to my attention that you seem to be struggling in my class, is there any particular reason _why?_ "

The teen shuddered "Yes! I mean no! I mean….oh I don't know, I-I-I just, I'm not the best student is what I mean to say. I think." he shrank underneath the professor's gaze, passing huntsman and huntresses gave sympathetic glances at the unfortunate boy's predicament, the vampire sighed "Boy, do you even understand what I'm trying to teach you?" no answer, he sighed again "You just failed my class." he trudged past the huntsman into the hall, Jaune stared at the spot he'd been standing in for a few moments then sat down on the floor, his legs no longer able to support him, he drew in his legs curling into a fetal position as he slowly began rocking back and forth…..back….forth…..back…...forth.

/

"What do you think he want's?" Emerald shifted nervously eyeing the row of armor arranged at the rear of the classroom, Mercury picked a bottle of dark liquid up off a strange table adorned with foreign symbols and some sort of chemistry set and sniffed at the contents. His face paled just slightly as he set it down "Blood."

Neo had moved quietly to one of the numerous display cases and curiously viewed the contents, nestled within the red lining was a set of peculiar objects, in the top left corner was a hexagonal silver locket with a large similarly shaped emerald with hinges and a clasp hinting at some sort of contents, in the top right was an ornate silver dagger, its blade long and curved, a keen edge shone invitingly, the handle was a clean white ivory with stylised carvings decorating it, a small blemish stained the center of the blade as if a drop of water had fallen there and darkened the metal. Directly below that was a plain gold ring, it seemed to have some sort of glow to it, like a light shining on it, finally in the bottom left was folded letter, old and weathered, the edge of the fold carried a defined crease as if it had been opened and then closed many times.

Cinder walked over and looked over the criminal's shoulder to see the contents, she made a curious _hmm_ and looked over the rest of the classroom until something on the desk caught her eye. An old and beaten book with a good sized amount of pages bound in a tough leather cover, she opened it and flipped through the pages, it appeared to be some kind of notebook, it spoke of experiments, items, people, places or events she had no knowledge of though they seemed rather important to the book's author, portions of the journal were written in a strange series of runic symbols, they looked like a sort of language though how anyone would speak or even read it she had no idea.

She grabbed another page, then yelped in surprise as it burned to the touch, the book slammed shut of it's own accord and she turned around so see the rest of her team frozen in surprise as the professor walked into the room, he stopped and looked at her smirking slightly "Did your mother never teach you how _rude_ it is to read someone's private thoughts?" his grin died quickly as he saw Neo standing near the display case but he said nothing and sat down behind his desk with scowl "So, today's the day huh? I'm sure you have many questions about who I am, where I come from, how I did what did in the cafe that day so I'm going to tell you...it's none of your business."

The group came to stand in front of Carmine's desk which he was now resting his feet on, Cinder stepped forward angrily "I don't want any more of your insane games, what do you know!" the man held up a hand "Watch who you order around little one, it is not wise to anger a dragon in the midst of his den." A small flame formed around Cinder's hand, he regarded it with a blank expression " _Really?_ I don't know what sort of stuffy billionaire type daddy you had growing up but you will find that _temper tantrums_ will grant you no special treatment with me. Like I said before, all you need to do is give a tired man a little help with a project, then we can all go home happy."

The dark haired girl hesitated….she sighed and the fire winked out "We can pay you." He snorted and waved his hand dismissively "I have no interest in your money. I can take that whenever I want, as Emerald has so kindly demonstrated." the green haired thief crossed her arms and her brow furrowed "No I need a little help learning how to manipulate Dust."

The group blinked in surprise, Mercury raised an eyebrow "Dust? Why would you need help with that?" Carmine smiled pleasantly, but his eyes warned against questions "Because Mr. Black, books can only take one so far before practice must take precedence, if I'm not mistaken, Cinder has quite the understanding of it, her choice of attire speaks volumes." the team glanced at their leader's Dust woven dress, the owner of which frowned "That's it? All of that mess in the courtyard just to ask for lessons? From _me?"_

Neo stepped forward and gestured in a circle motion with her hand, her message was obvious; _keep talking._ The vampire raised an eyebrow "Not entirely, there are a few matters your teammates will be able to help me with, but that is for another time." he stood up quickly at the sound of the classroom door opening, the group turned to see Glynda Goodwitch enter with a very unhappy look on her face "Children please head to your dorms, the professor and I need to have a meeting with the headmaster." the group hurried out and Carmine smiled and sat back down.

/

"What on earth were you thinking? You cannot _fail_ students in the middle of term." the elf scowled "I can if they clearly do not belong here. This is a _combat_ school, I refuse to indulge childish dreams of impossibility."

Ozpin's mouth thinned to a razor thin edge " _I_ will decide who belongs and who doesn't, you need to at least give him a chance!" Carmine made an inhuman noise in the back of his throat "I did, he failed at every turn, he doesn't even have basic combat prowess, he's not ready for the kind of lessons I teach."

"And what exactly _are_ you teaching them? Because it sounded like you were teaching them to hurt people, mentally and physically." Glynda glared at the elf.

" _That_ is _exactly_ what I am teaching them! I don't know what you people are doing hiding behind your walls when there are monsters crawling all over the _planet_! You cannot possibly think that there is nobody out there or even inside the kingdoms that don't think they could do a better job running things. And when they show themselves they _will_ kill people, unless you know when and how to defend yourselves you are all dead, there is no room for amateur fighters wandering into the wilds to be devoured because they can't defend themselves."

Ozpin stood "You need to trust that he will learn, that _all_ our students will learn to protect themselves and they will learn the _right_ way.

Carmine was silent…...thinking….then he spoke in a voice just audible for them to hear "The last time I did that...a rookie fighter got himself and his entire team killed….my best friend among them, they were killed by a scared group of farmers who took them by surprise, these students need to know how make sure that the good people live, and the bad ones don't. They need my lessons, they need my _pain,_ if they don't, then they'll never survive." he turned and walked into the elevator crushing the button to the living quarters floor.

/

"That man is unpredictable, he needs to be removed." Ozpin wasn't listening to Glynda, he was still thinking about what the man had said. Goodwitch noticed his face and sighed walking towards the elevator she hit a button and the door's shut.

"Oh Carmine, you poor soul, you poor unfortunate soul." the headmaster sighed and sipped his coffee, he set down the mug and put his head in his hands "Ha! My nephew never has been one for consistency of character." the headmaster launched out of his seat whirling around drawing out a blade from his cane and pointing it at the voice's source, leaning against the window as if he hadn't a care in the world was a man, he was dark haired and cloaked in black robes, he carried a large and foul smelling flask in his hand which he took a swig from "Listen Ozzy boy, this ain't gonna make too much sense to you, but take my word for it, ol Carmy ain't travelin' with a full pack furs if you see what I'm spelling, er, talkin, either one. Listen buddy, I just need you to make him have a good time, forced or not."

Ozpin's arm lowered "I...beg your pardon?" the man chuckled "Come on Ozzy, you're a smart guy, look all I'm askin is for you to make sure he doesn't forget who he is in all those memories he's luggin around, you seen him with his little chemistry set, gave that to him you know, when he was a wee little monster, he brewed me a beer for my trouble." the headmaster's eyes were wide as the stranger talked, this was even more bizarre than the vampirism.

The drunkard took a swig "Anyway you seen him right? Happy as a me in a pub, or somethin, he used to be like that all the time till he had his little 'accident', happiest vamp I ever seen even if he is a thievin killer, but damned to Oblivion if he hasn't had a run of it. It don't suit him to be all somberlike, he needs something fun before he kills himself, oh sure the dad's all proud and lovin even though he don't show it, but Carmy's spendin less time in the books than he is torturin himself over what he reads in em. You know you're a good listener Ozzy boy, tell you what, you get the toothy little bloodsucker ta drink somethin intoxicating that ain't out of a maiden's neck, maybe get em to chase a few skirts and it'd mean alot to me, if I remember that is, this is some strong stuff. Even if I don't, you're supposed to look after yer professors right? See ya round Ozzy boy." and with that he took a shaky step forward, then passed out crumpling to the floor to be swallowed by a purple vortex.

Ozpin stared….he turned to look out the window "I realise this out of character for me, and I realise that I'm the only one around to hear it anyway, but for the sake of preserving some semblance of rational thought and not losing my mind….. _what the FUCK just happened!?"_

 **I don't know why, but I take special joy in making the cool and collected Ozpin as hot and bothered as possible, it seems so unique, I've read other stories and without fail he NEVER freaks out, and that's just boring.** **Hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it and ROCK ON!**


	10. Accidents

**Chapter 10: Accidents**

 **Annnnnnnd we're back, I don't really have anything witty to say soooooo, story time.**

"Easy! This isn't chilly powder, you drop the case you're likely to blow yourself up." Carmine snorted "Would hardly be the first time." he muttered, Cinder gave him a weird look then decided to get back to the task at hand. The pair stood on top of the school roof in the middle of the day, Carmine held a small metal chest with the Schnee Dust Company logo printed on the side, he set the case down and opened the lid revealing rows of vials fitted into individual slots each one containing a type of powdered Dust.

Cinder kneeled down and carefully lifted a vial full of bright Dust, uncorking the top she placed two fingers over the top and moved it swiftly upward, seemingly of it's own accord the Dust flowed outward in a stream of gleaming particles and floated around the girl's hand weaving in between her fingers in a beautiful display. Carmine fixed his glowing eyes on the material completely mesmerised "The most basic principle in the raw usage of Dust." Cinder said looking curiously at the man, he acted as though he'd never even seen the stuff before "Is being able to exert your will over it, through your aura you alter its state make it do what you want to do. Now, try to take it from me using only your will."

The Dragonborn's face was blank, a well practiced, very effective, unbreaking blank, too bad his brain was screaming. _YOU DON'T HAVE AN AURA, DON'T GET YOURSELF KILLED!_ _**QUIET!.**_ He silenced his own thoughts; _I need to know, there's always a way to find out what I want to know._

He stretched out his left hand and cast a telekinesis spell, the fortunate thing about this was he had trained himself to cast many spells without the telltale flash of light. The very very _very_ unfortunate thing was in his infinite wisdom he forgot how violent the pull was on that particular spell, the dust ripped away from his instructor's hand mashing into a ball in front of him, his eyes widened in terror when he saw the fire start and he just had time enough for a single thought to cross his mind, _you're a vampire you imbecile._

The Dust ignited exploding outwards and engulfing the man while throwing Cinder to the ground, Cinder's ears split when he screamed, not just a scream though, it was the most horrible nightmare inducing, discombobulating, _inhuman_ screech she had ever heard. It cut off abruptly and her eyes opened to reveal a green light zooming towards her, the spell washed over the briefly one time instructor and she stiffened as if frozen then subsequently passed out on the ground.

/

Ozpin almost jumped into the ceiling when he heard the scream, he was walking along one of the hallways near the dorms when that _noise_ made every door in the school open revealing terrified and heavily armed students. He took off like a bolt of lightning with several of the huntsmen in training scrambling along behind, he navigated the corridors and doorways with an expert purpose already knowing where exactly in his school the noise had come from, he rushed up a flight of stairs heading for the correct rooftop. He sprinted up the stairs the footsteps of the group behind him fading as they bottlenecked into the narrow entryway, he clambered up and arrived at the roof entry drawing a blade out of his cane he kicked the door open and held it ready in front of him.

The situation on the roof was….delicate, a massive star shaped line of soot spread from the center of the rooftop along with what appeared to be the remains of some sort of box, a few feet away to his right lay a student, not one of his, she wore the now dirty uniform of Haven academy, she lay seemingly paralyzed on her side completely unmoving. Ozpin recognised Carmine, but only because it couldn't have been anyone else, nobody he knew could have looked like _that,_ as for the "elf" himself he squatted off to the left of the carnage quivering. His wings hung limply from his back and touched the ground, wings he did indeed have due to his change, the moment the Dust had detonated he had shifted into the form of the Vampire Lord entirely by age old reflex.

He growled and twitched with his back to the door, he cradled his left arm, the normally green skin was blackened and charred, his weakened blood boiled in the sunlight, bubbling and steaming as it leaked from his arm, his fingers had a bony look to them with middle one little more than bone and a raw red muscle holding it together, he couldn't see out of his left eye. He'd only experienced pain like this once before in his punished and bloody life and that had involved a dragon's maw wrapped around his leg and leaking corrosive dragon's blood.

"Carmine?" He whipped around growling furiously at the voice, Ozpin took a step back gripping his sword tightly, his cane sheath in his other hand. Carmine stood shakily, his wings folding up into his back still clutching his arm, he turned away slowly started walking towards the edge of the roof, a black smog engulfed his body as his already impaired vision blurred. "Carmine? What are you-?" his form shrank into his elven form he stepped to the very edge "Carmine? Be caref- Carmine!" Ozpin gaped as the man tumbled off the roof, he ran to the edge and leaned over trying desperately to see, to _know._ He looked over just in time to notice the tentacle at the bottom of the drop disappear into a black void, a limp figure wrapped in it's embrace.

"Uh, Oz? What happened?" Ozpin didn't even bother to turn around to see Glynda, he just waved his hand in the unconscious girl's direction "Take her to her dorm….I need to have a chat with someone." not a single one of the students who came streaming out the door took notice of the massive arena floating into the sky….

/

" **Oh my boy….what has the universe done to you now?"** Hermaeus wrapped his appendages around his son and dipped him into the inky pool in a lying position, the liquid crawled over the man in thin streams perfectly outlining his veins and musculature. A fluid shell formed over his arm and the side of his face, a relieved groan escaped from his mouth as slowly the water did it's work.

The daedric prince's godly hearing took notice of the hallucinogenic mutterings the injured man emitted "I need to keep looking….I need her back….I need to have…...must keep looking." The lord of fate's many eyes widened and he spoke quietly to himself " **You stopped, you told me you stopped looking….oh Carmine my champion….my brave Little Seeker….haven't you learned yet? Nothing in the universe, can bring back the dead….."**

 **Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it, I find myself eager to finish this for some reason, I have an idea for a more conventional RWBY fanfic so keep an I out for the finish, the days of Consumed are numbered now and the chapters are going to be longer from here on out, ROCK ON!**


	11. The love I have lost

**Chapter 11: The love I have lost**

 **Here we are once again, I suppose it's finally time to tell the world what Carmine's REAL goal was, I mean I kinda gave it away in the last chapter but it can't be that clear already….I think.**

"Who are you!? What exactly is Carmine doing here!? And where on the PLANET has he been for the past week!?" The man with the flask grimaced at the headmaster's furious line of questioning "Easy Ozzy boy….it don't work like that okay? I tried to warn you about my nephew but...well it seems after that little _incident_ it's already too late, the boy's doomed now."

"DOOMED!? What are you talking about?! Was it that, that _thing_ that grabbed him? Is he in danger? ANSWER ME DAMMIT!" Carmine's uncle Sanguine took a good long look at the flask in his hand...then he scowled and tossed it his mind clear for the first time since his birth. "I can't say much but I can say that he's okay, if anyone needs to be worried, I'd say it's them."

He pointed up at the floating coliseum, Ozpin's face darkened "What's going to happen?" Sanguine shrugged "Not my job to know, but when it does happen, you better hope to god's that Carmine is here to stop it."

 **/**

 _Carmine woke from his sleep and stretched out yawning, he pushed the green blanket off and stood walking over to his chest, he waved his hand over the lock and muttered the proper password, a blue spark jumped from his hand and a loud_ Click! _signaled the lock's release._

 _He grinned and pushed open the lid and grabbed his elven cuirass, lifting the gilded moonstone up he slid the loose armour over his shoulders, he pulled on the leather straps and tightened up the chest piece, a small switch bolted the piece in place as tiny dwarven mechanisms adjusted and tightened, fitting the piece exactly to his form, he smiled "Innovation, never gets old." he leaned down and pulled out his gauntlets which he fit smoothly over the fabric sleeves of the cuirass flexing his hands into fists and then open palms again._

 _He finished with his boots and grabbed his helmet and sword from a weapon stocked shelf a few feet away and put them on, he quickly inspected himself in the mirror and tied the usual knot in his beard before grinning to himself and walking out. He pushed open the bedroom door and walked towards the front of the manor grabbing a sweetroll of the table as he passed by, he pushed open the heavy wood double doors and chomped into the sugary roll as he walked outside, in front of him was the most beautiful view in the Summerset Isles, the humble wooden manor was placed on a flat mountain side plateau overlooking a forest of golden leaves, the sun shone brightly down illuminating the sparkling blue ocean beyond._

 _He breathed in deeply stretching out his arms, his eyes shot open suddenly when a swift movement snatched the roll out of his hand and he whirled around his hand going to his blade._ Shing! _A curved silver dagger pressed to his throat and he froze his golden eyes gleaming in anticipation, matching perfectly with the broad smile on his face "Please! Take me but spare my sweetroll!" a laugh rang out making his heart cartwheel in joy at the pure music of the sound._

 _His beloved smiled brilliantly, her teeth shone like pearls against her fair skin, her lustrous snow white hung in a braid down her back and the side of her face and her eyes, they were cheery and light but at the same time held a fierce mettle in their emerald pools, a man could drown in those eyes before he realized all of his belongings were gone and he was facing the sky._

" _So when did you hear me?" she raised a snowy brow and pulled the blade away sheathing it at her hip, the high elf shrugged with an innocent look on his face "Hear you? Whatever do you mean madam? I heard naught of your regal approach." his voice deepened into his 'pompous noble tone' as he called it as he bowed low, those perfect lips pouted in a way that made him want to kiss her so badly._

" _Yes yes Mr. Prince of Apocrypha, now when did you hear me?" Carmine's face became even more innocent to a state one might call angelic "Only when I was putting my gauntlets on." she giggled exuberantly and threw her arms around him pulling him into a kiss, for a Snow Elf she had quite the talent for making him melt. She pulled away still smiling "You're the worst, the most immature old man I have ever come across."_

 _It was his turn to pout now "Who are you calling old? I seem to recall you having a few decades on me yet." A punch rattled his shoulder and he gripped it laughing as the goddess in front of him chomped into his sweetroll her eyes sparkling with a playful sort of warning "I can still kick your hide there spellboy."_

" _And don't I know it, you never let me forget." she gasped with a look of mock horror "Why on earth would I let you forget our first date!?" the pair grinned slyly then burst out laughing like two giddy children._

" _OI! Lovebirds!" the elves turned to see their band of merry comrades, two high elves, an imperial and even an orc who was leading the group up the to the manor. Carmine sighed and put his arm around his wife's shoulders who leaned her head against him fingering the hexagonal locket at her neck "Rog! How goes the recruiting old friend!?"_

 _The orc's smile was grizzly and fanged "We got a young boy off his farm! Take a look!" the group stepped aside to reveal a terrified looking black haired breton in iron armor, he stepped forward and spoke with a steady voice that contradicted entirely his appearance "A pleasure to meet you sir, I'm-"_

" _Have you any training?" Carmine interrupted raising an eyebrow, the youth spluttered not expecting the disruption "I-I-I-I…...no..no I don't." the high elf sighed "Well until you learn how too-"_

" _Relax dear." his beloved smiled and pulled away to take a look at the boy "He can learn next job, we can just say he has training and teach him on the fly, it's not like you're big on the truth Mr. I'm only forty-three."_

" _I am though." he frowned and she laughed again making him smile "Only if you remove the pair of zeros behind that number." she walked forward and kissed him on the nose with a sly look on her face "Now go play with your chemistry set spellboy, I can handle the work for today." Carmine laughed heartily "As you wish milady." she smiled and drew her dagger twirling it as she headed down the path talking to the new recruit. The elf turned towards the house smiling….that was the last time he'd ever see her alive….._

 _/_

" _Hello?" Carmine scowled as he raised the orb of light higher in his left hand, his right maintaining a firm grip on_ Misery _as he stepped deeper into the tomb. The halls shone silver in the light, slimy green mold covering the floor, each step caused a squelching noise to echo through the ruin, a myriad of carvings lined the walls stained and blackened by centuries of decay. Carmine spent a lot of time in his father's library and even he had not yet come across anything of their like, they spiraled and twisted, forming monsters and men, zig zagged into jagged lines then flattened entirely forming images of seemingly useless plants and furniture with no relation to the previous wall….his uncle Sheo would have loved it._

" _Hello?" he spoke uncertainly, he had been expecting resistance of some kind, skeletons or ghosts, even a lich, but there was nothing….just silence, and in his experience silence meant either he had already killed everything….or something wanted to kill him. He froze suddenly as a squelching noise ahead alerted him, he put his centuries of thievery to use and vanished into a shadowy alcove dowsing his candlelight, only one person in the world had a chance of finding him in stealth, and she was somewhere in this tomb._

 _He gripped his sword tightly as the noise got closer….and closer….a shambling of rough leather and metal could be heard….closer….closer….a grunt sounded, could be a lich….closer….and….. "Rog?" Carmine said surprised as his old comrade revealed himself and he sighed relieved….then he tensed again as he saw the blood._

 _The orc's green chest piece was rent with a massive hole, blood matted his face, a red haze revealed the last vestige of a berserker rage, he leaned on his left leg, a jagged bone could be seen poking out of a wound in his other leg. His figure tilted forward and he groaned in pain, Carmine was at his friend's side in a flash catching his musclebound frame and lowering him to the ground "Rog! What happened!? Where is she!? Rog!? ROG!?" the warrior looked up at the altmer with empty eyes "I….I…." Carmine leaned in "WHAT!?"_

" _I couldn't….save…..ssssseeee…...you…..later." the orc slurred his last words, then slumped in his brother's arms. "Rog? Rog!? No, no no no nononononononono, NO!" he set down the corpse and bolted down the halls abandoning all caution, he rounded the corner to see the cause of his peril, a horde of skeletons crowded in the narrow passageway, Carmine screamed enraged and unleashed a wall of lighting disintegrating the skinless fiends, he barreled through their remains screaming…. "AAAAARRRRRYYYYYYAAAAAAA!"_

 _/_

 _The ash smoldered around him…...croaks emitted from the few bone draggers still partially intact as they tried to desperately escape his sight with their melted limbs and shattered heads…..but he didn't care….none of them mattered….destroying them would change nothing…..she was gone…...Arya….was gone._

 _He cried silently as he kneeled over her form, she lay there in front of him, her arms and legs spread, eyes once glowing with a love for the world….blank. Her fingers gripped tightly to her dagger, the blade covered in powdered bone, she went down fighting, her white falmer armor scarred and wrent. A skull clutched in her other hand was shattered and dented, she'd beat them to oblivion with one of their brethren's own heads._

 _And that smile….she had that sly smirk on her face….the one she always wore in victory….her last victory now….within this tomb….there was not a trace of the other's, he didn't want to know where their fates lay now, and he cried at the injustice that he could not take her with him, old magic held these halls, no dead may exit so as to prevent the monster's from leaving, not even he could break a charm like that._

 _One of his tears fell from his face and dropped onto the gleaming knife, it stained the metal, and that stain would stay there, a single speck of sorrow, until the day he died. The room was wide around him, a large raised platform stood in the center, he picked up his love, and carried her to it, raising her there he placed Arya there face up. He folded her arms across her chest and straightened her legs, he delicately pried her dagger out of her cold hands, he unclasped her locket from around her neck and and carefully slid her wedding ring off her finger. He held the items close to his heart for a moment….then he tucked them away and stood, he raised his hands and he casted his magic upon her, a transparent square of ice froze underneath her, it grew and raised her up to waist height, it stopped there and froze around her, forming a coffin of the stuff…a nearby stone flew from the ground and cracked and grated as words carved themselves into the rectangle, he stepped back and bowed his head._

 _In front of him was now a perfectly shaped rectangular prism of clear ice, Arya lay within frozen...completely preserved for all the world to behold, and the stone tablet lay on top, and Carmine read the words aloud,_

" _ **Here lies my friend…**_

 _ **My lady in white….**_

 _ **Here lies my wife….**_

 _ **The love of my life….**_

 _ **Here lies my joy….**_

 _ **The mother of my boy…."**_

 _He became aware of a hand on his shoulder, he didn't even turn his head to see him, his father spoke quietly, in the same voice he used when he witnessed his own wife's death so many years ago "Mother? But you didn't have….oh my boy, oh Carmine, I'm so sorry." Carmine turned to see his father, long dark haired and inky green eyed, but otherwise his face a perfect but weary mirror of his son's. Carmine hugged Hermaeus tightly, and he cried….he sobbed….he mourned…_

/

Carmine awoke in his father's arms, not his tendrils, not his claws or his grip….his arms, the same arms that held him on that day so long ago, just as they held him then, they held him now. "Son….is this why you accepted? Because you thought there might be some device on this planet that could….?" Carmine was silent for a minute, then he responded quietly "Yes….but...I think…...I think I'm done, it just….it hurts…"

His father pulled away grasped him by the shoulders "That's because you're alive." the dragonborn frowned confused, then he noticed the rhythm. Familiar, yet one he'd lived without ever since he met a monster named Harkon….his heart was beating, and he was a mortal again….his eyes grew moist again and he hugged his father tightly….then the world shook.

 **So….yeah, give me a sec…...I have to be perfectly honest…...I started to cry a little while I was writing this chapter…..this is….well, this is going to be the second last one…..I hope you liked it and stuff….well, all good things must come to an end, so watch for the end.**


	12. The end of a Legend

**Chapter 12: The end of a Legend**

 **Well…...this is it, the first story I've ever finished, the great ending to Consumed…..begins.**

Carmine stepped away from his father unsteadily as the floor of Apocrypha rumbled beneath them, slimy water splashed up in waves and Hermaeus's form flickered into a vaguely human shaped mass of tentacles.

"What's happening?" Carmine's face was calm and emotionless…..his fighting face. Mora's eyes were wide as he stretched his tentacles now in his usual form and he spoke urgently" **I know you recall what I said about a change of fate! That change is coming to a close, and as per** _ **freakin**_ **usual you are right in the middle of it!"**

Carmine's composure didn't break but a sarcastic tone crept into his voice "Wow dad, I think that's the worst language I've ever heard you use, I guess I better stop listening before you break out the _gosh darns_ and the _golly jees._ "

" **NOT! THE! TIME! Now take these and go help your companions!"** A mess of tendrils shot towards Carmine and engulfed him in ink, they hardened into a familiar black casing. "Wait, is this the- OOOHHHH FFFFUUUUCCCCKKKKK!" the force slammed him into the domed cover above him as he began to plummet into Remnant for the second time.

/

"One final match! Place your bets!" Professor Port spoke with gusto firing his blunderbuss into the swarming Griffons, Oobleck laughed behind him and fired a salvo of fireballs knocking one of the monsters into the stands with a _Crunch!_ More swarmed around them screeching furiously, a trio dropped to the ground charging towards Port "Have at thee!" yelled Port and the bombastic professor opened fire.

 _Clang! Ting!_ The rounds impacted but did not faze the Grimm, Port flipped his weapon and brandished the axe head charging forward with a roar, the leader lunged for his and was brained by the man's blades for it's effort, armored plates cracked and it fell. Port yanked out the weapon and turned it blasting the second Griffon into the air. The avian creature flapped it's wings trying to steady itself when Oobleck flew into view and swung his flaming thermos.

" _SCCCCRRRREEEEEEEE!"_ the Griffon burst into flame crashing down in a heap on it's still unharmed third comrade which bent awkwardly under the weight it's back crunching unpleasantly. Oobleck landed lightly and called to his partner "Port! Hot Coffee!" if Oobleck had said that too anyone else in this situation they would probably question his sanity, but it wasn't anyone else, it was Port.

The mustachioed man nodded and raised his gun, Oobleck's weapon ignited at and he tossed it like a javelin towards him, Port knelt and counted quitely. When the lit weapon was directly above him, he fired, it changed direction and flew vertically now a massive ball of flame, the miniature meteor launched into the swirling mass of Griffon's and detonated casting a red glare over the colosseum.

Dozen's of Grimm were caught in the blast and fell screaming to the floor their feathers now burning brightly, Oobleck jumped back as one dove beak first embedding its bony head in the floor, he held out his and smiled as his weapon fell directly into his grasp, then he dropped it crying out in surprise, evidently metal gets hot.

He gritted his teeth and gripped it gingerly, he twirled it to cool and he met Port at the center of the Arena "It seems we have our work cut out for us old friend." he said, Port laughed loudly "OH HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! I haven't had this much fun in years!" he cut off quickly when a massive Nevermore landed in front of them " _SSSSCCCCRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"_

"Oh...oh my." Port muttered and the professor's gripped their weapon's tightly, they aimed….and gawked as a jagged black boulder speared through the Grimm's chest.

/

Carmine landed with a heap against the shell's floor as it hit what he assumed was the ground, that assumption was quickly discarded at the loud screech of agony, he stood as the casing shook and he looked over himself, he chuckled to find he was wearing full Dragonscale armour with _Misery_ sheathed at his side glowing lime green with energy "Well, I guess I don't have to worry about you running out of charge eh? Thanks dad." he drew the blade and slashed open a hole and stepped out triumphantly….right onto thin air as the Nevermore dissolved and he fell unceremoniously on his butt.

"HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! So much for a heroic entry their my boy!" he looked up sheepishly as Port and Oobleck pulled him to his feet, he shook himself and stood summoning lightning in his left hand gripping his sword in his other and observed the swirling horde, he smiled "Alright then, Dragonborn time." and unleashed the Chain Lightning.

The blue bolts crackled as it hit one of the Griffon's, then the next, and the next and so on as electricity jumped from one to the other, a cloud of black vapour began to fall as they were decimated around him, he didn't wait up and turned bolting out of the colosseum. Oobleck and Port stood still for a moment watching the Grimm remains mark the disappearance of the former horde "Well….I'd say he has this handled." Port nodded white faced as a loud _Yyyyeeeeehhhhaaaaahhhh!_ Spelled doom for more Grimm.

/

"MUL QAH DIIV!" the dragon aspect flashed around him filling him with energy, he ran around the corner just in time to see a ship full of students take off, and witness the horde of beowolves crawl up around him "Alright beasties, who want's to fight The Demon Elf?" a jaw latched onto his shoulder as what appeared to be a newborn Grimm clambered onto his back, a growl traveled around the pack "YOL TOOR SHUL!" a wall of fire burst from his lips charring the beasts in front of him to a crisp.

 _Sniff! Sniff!_ "Eeww, you burnt guys smell like Eola's breath, and she eats people, I mean really, that is some dedication to sucking, you even smell bad." He swung his sword in a wide slash the tentacle decapitating and goring the remainder of his target's, then he gripped the baby's head and shook, to no avail as the Grimm remained firmly attached with no intention of leaving his shoulder pad "You're stuck aren't you? I'm about to jump off the arena now." the pup let go and scurried away without a sound.

"Not a fan of heights eh? Yeah, neither am I." He walked to the edge of the structure and looked down totally blank faced "Okay, okay, I can do that. Right now, okay, okayokayokayokayokay, OKAY!" he yelled his voice squeaking in a totally 100% completely masculine way as he launched himself into a dive.

His eyes widened as a distant Nevermore noticed him and came hurtling up to meet him with a wide beak "KREO!" he called and his butler faded into existence beside him, falling cross legged and totally poker faced "*sigh* you _rang_ sir?"

"SHIELD!" his butler passed him a shield to match his armour which he held in front of him "KREO! I RELEASE YOU FROM SERVICE!" the dremora's face brightened and he straightened snapping a salute "Aye sir!" and he exploded, not _Boom! FIRE!_ Sort of exploded but he vanished and ejected every single thing Carmine had made him carry, massive piles of enchanted weapons, armor, potion bottles and soul gems began falling beside him crashing randomly into airborne Grimm, along with for some reason a gratuitous amount of cheese and fish-sticks.

The Nevermore below him was not so fortunate to catch the food however and received a healthy mouthful of frost enchanted warhammers freezing it into a life size Nevermore ice sculpture which was immediately smashed through by a bullet fast elf shield first.

"OOF! *Hack! Hack!* well _that_ was interesting!" Carmine talked to himself after coughing out bits of ice and snow but his words were lost in the velocity wind. He shook his head and glanced at his shield, he snorted then tossed it into the wind; _not like I use the damn things much anyway._

He remembered then that he was currently hurtling towards the ground and shouted "FEIM ZII GRON!" and his body turned ghostly transparent he huddled up into a ball as the ground drew close.

Landing from large heights while ethereal was an unusual experience, see he didn't become entirely immaterial to avoid plummeting to the center of the planet, but his dragon-ish side had to translate into something his brain could understand and not just stop him so suddenly he puked out his intestines….to be blunt, Carmine bounced. High.

/

" _AAAAAHHHHH….AAAAAHHHHH…..AAAHHH….AAAAH…..WOAH….AH…"_ Emerald had to do a quadruple take on what was happening in front of her "Umm..Mercury?" her gray haired companion turned from his currently recording scroll scowling in annoyance "What? I Cinder said not to miss what comes next and WHAT THE FFFUU-"

"AHHH!" _THUD!_ Carmine landed in a heap on the now unconscious boy causing Emerald to draw her weapons and point her guns at him, he stood brushing the dust off of himself chuckling "Whoops! Sorry about that!" he lightly kicked Mercury in the side oblivious to the danger he was in "Come on Black no sleeping on the-" _BANG BANG!_

Dragonscale was many things, magical, primordial, easy to enchant, and tough enough to take an orc's broadsword without a scratch, but it wasn't bulletproof, and a now depleted dragon aspect did nothing. He gasped stumbling slightly but still standing, Emerald dropped her guns horrified at what she'd done; _Why did I? How? He didn't know? And now he's….oh someone help me._

Carmine stood staring down at the three circles of blood in his chest with an odd look on his face, then he did the last thing any sane person would do….he started laughing.

Emerald suddenly became aware of his reaction, she fell backwards scrambling desperately towards the edge of the rooftop, that same feeling screaming in her head as it had the day in the coffee shop; _DANGER! RUN AWAY! FLEE!_ As it turns out Carmine did that for her "You know the last time I actually shed blood? Almost thirty years ago now I think, ol Nirn chomper put up quite the fight, this is nothing, good shot, you got close enough so you didn't miss, but nothing."

He stepped forward towering over her drawing his sword under her neck "It would be so easy….painless….I used to kill lots of punks about your age, something about being a better mage than me, I usually just stabbed them in the jugular and saved me the time." he pressed a hair deeper making blood trickle down her neck "Ha hahahhahahahahah! Some friendly thief to thief advice, when you get what you need….run."

He pulled away and stepped to the edge and jumped off casually as if he didn't have new breathing holes in his chest, Emerald just sat there staring...Mercury groaned and sat up rubbing a bruise on his head still clutching his scroll "Where? Who? What? Why?" Sustrai nodded "I was thinking the same thing." then the mountain hatched.

/

"The mountain is an egg….I suppose I've seen weirder….no, no that really makes the least sense of _anything_ I've ever seen….well Cicero is pretty weird but insanity is hardly frowned upon for killers." Carmine stood bleeding in front of Beacon, above him a massive winged creature that had apparently been nesting within solid rock moved swiftly towards the tower. He snorted and began walking towards the school "Barbas's balls I swear if someone calls that thing a dragon I will be extremely offended. WULD NAH KEST!" He launched himself forward coming to a stop at the side of the tower "Right now I just need to- _BLAARRGGGHHH!"_ the noble Dragonborn doubled over and puked on the ground, there was a lot of blood in there, yet Carmine brushed it off unconcerned, there was a certain lack of self preservation when one was no longer fearful of death.

/

"Don't do it kid, don't climb it...don't you dare, NO, FUCK!" Sanguine sighed heavily as he watched his nephew begin to climb the tower, he sighed and a drink appeared in his hand which he raised to the unwitting altmer,"Here's to you kid, say hi to the wife for me eh?" he took swig and lay back on the pile of rubble to enjoy the show.

/

 _Shank!_ "Why am I doing this?" _Shank!_ "I'm retired for god's sake." _Shank!_ "And yet, here I am again, marching towards death, well...climbing but you get my point." _Shank!_

Carmine was picking his way slowly but surely towards the top, a bound sword was conjured in his left hand and _Misery_ was gripped firmly in his right, he held both sideways to stab into the wall using the notches left over as footholds.

 _Shank!_ "So I'm climbing a tower, slowly bleeding out." _Shank!_ "Out of three wounds I could have healed with little to no effort yet left them open anyway." _Shank!_ "Talking to myself." _Shank!_ "And not in the least bit concerned for my own safety, and why? Because I _need to know."_ _Shank!_ "I need to know who's behind it, I need to know what the big bad guy's or girl's grand plan for world domination is this time." _Shank!_

The noise slowly faded out as he conversed with himself "So let's go over what I know, I know that Cinder, Mercury, Emerald and the quiet girl who I don't seem to recall the name of are all behind this. I know because I can read the lot of them like five page tomes, yet I told nobody about the imminent threat to the kingdom's safety that has effectively killed scores of innocent people, destroyed the city, and ripped their education system to pieces faster than Ancano did with The Eye of Magnus."

He continued to climb paying no attention to the building shaking underneath him "I am by all means responsible for everyone here and yet I really couldn't care less, they were supposed to die, that is their fate, for the first time in my long deceitful and tortured life I have had absolutely zero affect on the outcome of this line of events, and I'm totally okay with it. So am I insane? Probably, my wife would be totally justified for hating me in the afterlife but I know she won't because my dad is the god of fate and knowledge, and for some reason I just know that this is how it's supposed to work out."

A loud roaring of large amounts of fire zoomed up the innards of the building, he still didn't care "So what have I accomplished so far? Nothing, I tried being useful, tried setting an example for survival and yet my best students are evil masterminds and to be fair weren't even covered as Beacon student's which is rather unfortunate, I crushed the soul of some boy I barely knew, why? Because of my own personal vendetta, I didn't care then, I don't care now. Dad was wrong for once, I'm not alive am I? I died in that cave with my beloved Arya and my unborn boy."

His eyes began to blur with tears but he blinked them away as a loud grinding noise of metal on metal passed him by "From that very moment I've just been _breathing,_ not really alive, just _functioning….existing._ I used to be sorrowful about that old dragon's words, but I get it now, I already overcame my nature when I met her, that was all I needed, _she_ was all I needed. Vampirism was a mistake, I'm about four decades past my due date with the grim reaper, ha! _Grimm_ Reaper...funny. And all this time I've really been dead, I went to far past my time, that promise I made to remember everyone, I'm carrying ghosts on my shoulder, so I'll forget them now, time for them to get some rest, I know I need it, because you really _can't_ bring back the dead."

The sounds of metal clashing and yelling sounded from the top of the tower "I mean, someone remembers them, as they should, but they don't drag them around like they should still be alive, they'll end up like me." an orange glow of fire from above signaled his nearness to the top "So now here I am contemplating the mistakes of my life, like anybody's listening, hey maybe they are, maybe I'm not alone. Someone could be writing down everything I say at this very moment." a pattering sound near him made him turn his head to see one of his one-time student's run vertically up the tower on some sort of white runes.

"That kid….heh, something...special, about that kid, she's going up there to be the hero now, meanwhile I hang here quietly losing my mind in my basically self inflicted final moments. She's been living her regular, everyday life up until now, probably just hanging out with her friends right? Maybe getting some sort of sweets in her spare time? Now she's going to find her world flipped upside down, she's going to make her own story, and when it's over she'll accept it and move on, just like I should've, this time I'm just a footnote in this story, it's not my legend to make, it's not even my universe, that's the thing about stories, they have to end." He almost reached the top when a cry sounded and a massive explosion of white rocked the tower almost shaking him loose, he reached the top and blinked.

The creature was frozen over the tower, a massive scorch mark covered the place centered around the unconscious figure of the girl, Cinder was quivering a few feet away but her attention would turn to him soon, yet still he talked "Now someone might ask me in this situation, I came here because I _needed_ to _know_ something, it's pretty clear by now that I _know_ what comes next, what I don't know is what happens even after that, some things never change, I just need to _know, I NEED this KNOWLEDGE._ I can't even resist it anymore, I'm too far gone and the reason I _know_ that is because dad gave me these."

Carmine dispelled the bound weapon and dropped his sword beside him, he kneeled and reached into his boot pulling a few things out, the ring, the locket, the knife and the letter, he donned the locket and ring and held the letter tightly in his left hand, in his right he raised the dagger. Cinder stood to her feet shakily holding her midsection, she looked up and glared at him, with both eyes intact, she raised blood soaked hands and a bow of black glass appeared in them with an arrow nocked and aimed for the one of the wounds in his chest, his hand twitched and she fired.

The shaft slid smoothly into him just grazing his spine, and he slumped to his knees coughing, but even now, he wouldn't go without leaving a mark, one which manifested in Cinder screaming in pain and pulling out a now flaming dagger from around where her eye used to be.

Carmine opened the letter in his hand, as he had done ever since the day he was born, when he was given it by his father who said read it when the time was right, he had opened it before, each time it was blank, not anymore, Carmine shuddered as he sucked in his last breaths. There on the letter was a single word…. _forget._

And he did, and so did everyone else, nobody on Remnant ever questioned where the man had gone, Cinder never wavered in her belief that Ruby Rose took her sight. And Carmine was just fine with that, after all, this is Remnant we're talking about here, there were no dragonborns in this story….

 **And here we are, from the get go I wanted to make the ending unique, I knew that the big heroic fight where he saved us all again was out of the question, I wanted it to really make you ponder it, to make you** _ **think.**_ **So I have one single request for every person reading this in honor of my first complete story, write a review on what your interpretation is of the last chapter of Carmine Cerberus Cain. And on an unrelated note if you want to see a new pure RWBY fanfic written by me be sure to check out the start of my story Force of Nature on my profile, just a suggestion, I'm not expecting anything on that front, now, in place of my usual goodbye I think for Carmine I'll give one last shout. FUS RO DAH!**


End file.
